Ahh, youth
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 5:19 pmThe Kid got a nice new road bike for Christmas. Until then she just had an entry level "mountain bike" that has never seen a mountain. We noticed she was wanting to go on longer and longer road rides and on multi use paths. So now of course she wants to go on long rides and Mrs. T is rightly a bit anxious about turning her loose on the open roads unsupervised. Cue Old Former Rider. With a completely full spring break schedule, Saturday was the only day we might be able to ride. I was hoping for bad weather or that something else might grab her attention. No such luck.
I didn't have time to do any maintenance on my bike, it's only really been on the trainer recently. It's in desperate need of new tires, but it was either ride with what I had or miss the opportunity. It was cool, brisk, and windy when we started out. As she led me on a meandering route towards a bike path, I remembered everything I used to love, and not love so much about road riding. After two nut busting hours on rough winter ravaged roads (with as much riding as I used to do, it's just short of a miracle that there even IS a Kid.
) I led her on a return home trip over some fairly busy roads. The wind shifted, as it often does, so we fought it on the way out, and again on the way back. 32 miles I believe is the longest ride I've been on in several years. The old man was a little proud in the last few miles when The Kid couldn't keep up. Enough wind and hills, and me keeping a quick pace left her coming in pretty slow. She was a bit upset that she couldn't keep up until I admitted how tired I was and how sore I was later in the day. She'd never pushed that hard on a bike ride before. Just another near bonk ride for me, I've had plenty. Left me feeling pretty good. She dusted me in a 3 mile run a couple days before. Of course she played 10 hours of Volleyball the next day. And she's leaving for a 4 day lacrosse preseason training camp as I write this. But for a few minutes early Saturday afternoon, I still had it. 
I didn't have time to do any maintenance on my bike, it's only really been on the trainer recently. It's in desperate need of new tires, but it was either ride with what I had or miss the opportunity. It was cool, brisk, and windy when we started out. As she led me on a meandering route towards a bike path, I remembered everything I used to love, and not love so much about road riding. After two nut busting hours on rough winter ravaged roads (with as much riding as I used to do, it's just short of a miracle that there even IS a Kid.
) I led her on a return home trip over some fairly busy roads. The wind shifted, as it often does, so we fought it on the way out, and again on the way back. 32 miles I believe is the longest ride I've been on in several years. The old man was a little proud in the last few miles when The Kid couldn't keep up. Enough wind and hills, and me keeping a quick pace left her coming in pretty slow. She was a bit upset that she couldn't keep up until I admitted how tired I was and how sore I was later in the day. She'd never pushed that hard on a bike ride before. Just another near bonk ride for me, I've had plenty. Left me feeling pretty good. She dusted me in a 3 mile run a couple days before. Of course she played 10 hours of Volleyball the next day. And she's leaving for a 4 day lacrosse preseason training camp as I write this. But for a few minutes early Saturday afternoon, I still had it. 
College hunting is just around the corner!
It was a rockin 20.5 miles. Still on those old tires....